1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a control method for the same, and a program for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as an effort to address environmental issues, power saving in image forming apparatuses, such as printers and multifunction peripherals, has become widespread.
In a common method for realizing such power saving, if no print job is input to an image forming apparatus via a control panel thereof or via a network for a certain period of time, the image forming apparatus is shifted to a power-saving state to reduce power consumption.
However, there is also known a packet referred to as a heartbeat. A heartbeat is transmitted at certain intervals to maintain connection, and a receiving-end application does not need to reply to or calculate the heartbeat. A technique for processing a packet processable in a power-saving state such as the heartbeat without returning from the power-saving state is referred to as a proxy response.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-259906 discusses a communication control apparatus having a power-saving control function for determining whether the communication control apparatus needs to return to a non-power-saving state in response to a packet processable in a power-saving state.
In addition, transmission of a packet encrypted by secure sockets layer (SSL)/transport layer security (TLS) is known.
If a packet encrypted by SSL/TLS is applied to the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-259906, it is assumed that the communication control apparatus executes a decryption process when in the power-saving state. However, decryption of data encrypted by SSL/TLS requires a high calculation cost. For the decryption, a high-speed processing unit needs to be provided for a sub control unit that operates in the power-saving state. Since such high-speed processing unit requires large power consumption, the merit of shifting to the power-saving state is impaired.